Skills: 10 Climbers, 3 Bombers, 1 Blocker, 4 Builders, 1 Basher, 1 Miner, 1 Digger
Save Requirement: 56/60
Time Limit: None
Release Rate: 60

Playthrough

This one seems to be about getting the lemmings down from a high ledge. A classic puzzle. No floaters though, which means I'll probably have to use the terrain itself. I notice there's that big crystal hanging down over an elevated section of ground. Seems like a good spot to have a pioneer dig down.



Once I start testing this idea, I realize that stepping up onto that thin ledge in the starting area probably isn't the best approach. Instead, I send two climbers up the left wall:



The first will bomb, allowing the second to build and bash through the ceiling to get into position for the dig.



Success. Now the pioneer builds towards the crowd and I bomb the blocker. Easy.



...Ah, but it's now I realize I overlooked something. When I try to mine the crystal on the right, the crowd is going to bounce off of it while it's still being dug out, and I have no way to save them. It looks like I have to clear that crystal ahead of time.

The first thing I thought to do was to use two pioneers. It took a couple of tries, but I managed to time it so that the second climber would land on terrain right before the digger finishes their dig, preventing both of them from splatting.



However, when I had one of them mine into the crystal and then bomb so they wouldn't go all of the way through, I discovered that part of the plan had some issues too:



Yep, the bomber makes the pit too deep for the crowd to walk up.

It's at this point though, luckily, I realized I was way overcomplicating this puzzle. The bridge that catches the crowd didn't need to be 3 builders long. I could do a 2 builder bridge and still catch the crowd, which gave me a spare builder. I could use that to interrupt the miner. Since doing it this way doesn't sacrifice them, I only need to use one pioneer now. They mine first, turn, then build the bridge.



Solved with a spare bomber.

One of the biggest problems I face as a solver is that I frequently overcomplicate solutions. If I try something and it almost works, I am inclined to do the same thing again but "more complicated" to try and patch the problems, rather than looking at a simple change I could have made elsewhere to resolve the issue. But, at least these reviews serve as a way for me to reflect on that and also share my struggles with others.

Review

Pros: Good, quick puzzle. Strong sense of purpose and identity. I like the use of terrain.
Cons: Simple, easy and not terribly innovative. Timing the bombing of the blocker to avoid lemmings going the wrong way is sketchy.
Look: It's a bit simple but certainly not bad. The terrain is aesthetically appealing enough. I find crystal to be the hardest of the original styles to work with.
Score: 5/10

Solution Replay

Skills: 10 Bombers, 4 Builders, 1 Basher
Save Requirement: 57/60
Time Limit: None
Release Rate: 50

Playthrough

I've heard this is a hard level, so I'm a little nervous. It looks small. Not complicated, but it does involve one way blocks and a trap. It looks like the kind of level where you need to delay the crowd enough while the path is prepared.

I note that I can trap the crowd in the pit and free them with a basher, but... wait a second. The three spots I can see where I would need a builder all seem quite small. Couldn't I just... go for it?



That works. Building over the trap also works. However, what I didn't notice is that fatal fall immediately following the trap. That forces me to use another builder...



...and some lemmings die. But it's no problem, I can allow 3 deaths!



...Unfortunately, even using the basher to stall the lemmings, there isn't quite enough time to make it. The puzzle is not that simple.

For attempt 2, I turn the release rate up to 99 and allow all of the lemmings to drain into the pit. I then have the last one build. They're going to be my worker.



But that doesn't quite work either. There's no way to turn the worker around after finishing the path, so there's no way to free the crowd.

Next, I modify the plan by building in such a way that one lemming is prevented from falling into the pit:



But even doing this, I can't quite get the timing to work out. I always end up with this:



Another possibility I consider is allowing a few lemmings past then bombing the first bridge, so the remainder fall in the pit. This way, I can get two workers on the right (after some splat deaths), while keeping the rest of the crowd safe.



That part worked, but I soon discovered something I had yet to consider up to this point:



There's no way to save the basher. I can only allow 2 crowd deaths, not 3. Dang.

From here, I tried all sorts of things. Bashing in various places to delay the crowd. Allowing some of the crowd to fall in the pit and not others. Adjusting the release rate. Nothing worked. All up, I spent around half an hour on various failed solutions:



At this point I stepped away for a bit. During the break, I actually had a realization: I'd been misdirected. The secret to finding the solution was in one of the obstacles being a trap. If I sacrificed a lemming to the trap to allow another worker past, I would be able to save a builder.



And what can I do with that builder? It enables to me to have the same worker dig the tunnel to the crowd AND build the bridge to the end, while also saving that lemming:



So I set the release rate to 99 and built such that exactly two lemmings would escape falling in the pit. The first walks into the trap, allowing the second past. They go ahead and prepare the path as shown. Finally, the crowd is freed using a bomber.



Success! And with an extra lemming. Phew, that was tricky.

I'm glad the solution turned out to be a case of misdirection. I appreciate this a lot more than the alternative: carefully micromanaging the RR and assignment of skills to buy just enough time for the final builder. I find those sorts of puzzles to be rather annoying, personally.

But the misdirection itself was clever, I felt. One of your only skills is builders and there's clearly a bunch of other obstacles - pits and long falls - which you HAVE to avoid using those builders. By slipping the trap in there, it feels natural to build over that too. But instead, you have to recognize there's another way around it.

Despite struggling with it to the point that I got a bit frustrated, I actually think in the end, this is my favourite puzzle in the pack so far.

Addendum

Although my solution was close to the intended one, it had one piece of extreme precision: The correct builder had to plucked out of the crowd at the start of the puzzle, such that it'd barely reach over the pit and allow exactly one other lemming to cross. Doing that on the DOS original, without the ability to framestep, rewind, assign skills while paused, or see skill shadows, would suck. I suspected there was a better way to do it... and there is, at the cost of a lemming.



You can briefly turn the release rate up to bunch two lemmings, then bomb the builder so that the crowd falls in the pit. The rest of the solution is the same. Much less difficult to execute.


Review

Pros: Love the use of misdirection in the main trick. Challenging with a satisfying solution.
Cons: Not obvious enough that you had to contain the crowd. I wasted a lot of time exploring solutions which almost worked but didn't, which was a tad frustrating.
Look: For a simple layout in a simple style, I think this level looks appealing. Things like the layering of the metal, the varied alignment of the blocks and the wooden X give it an organic look, rather than clinical.
Score: 7/10

Solution Replay

Skills: 2 Climbers, 2 Floaters, 2 Bombers, 6 Builders, 1 Miner, 1 Digger
Save Requirement: 16/20
Time Limit: None
Release Rate: 50

Playthrough

I see at least three obstacles to overcome. Considering the skills I have on offer, I'm going to either be digging down through or building over the top. The pair of pipes on top of the wall in the middle are interesting. Could I possibly dig down between then and bomb to destroy that wall?

Without reading too much into how many of each skill I have, I was thinking something like this:



I decided to start trying things to see what happens. I often do that in large, complicated levels. Before I figure out how to solve it, I need an idea of what will and won't work. What are my options?

For example, it turns out mining at the start won't work if I want to avoid the pit on the left. It's too slow and a lemming turns around:



I can lose 4 lemmings though, so I keep going.



Turns out bombing there does work. That's cool. Surely that's part of the solution... why else would those big pipes be there?

Unfortunately, a single bomber is not enough to get through the barrier on the right. The solution won't be this simple. Let's try something new:



An athlete can go over the wall at the start while the crowd drains into the pit on the left. I have so many builders, surely I can just build the crowd out of the pit once the path has been prepared?



Turns out that doesn't work. You need 7 builders to get the crowd out of the pit and over the wall, but I only have 6. That means no matter what, I need to use a destructive skill of some kind to get the crowd from the hatch to the ground on the right.

One idea that came from this discovery was:



This only uses one builder in preventing the fatal fall, not two. That means I can use the spare builder to get the crowd over the wall.

Unfortunately...



...one miner is not enough to complete the solution from here. I need even more builders to boost the miner up or something.

At this point, I start getting stuck. There's three barriers, but I only have enough digging supplies to destroy two of them. A digger+bomber can remove the middle wall, but two bombers are required to clear the left wall. Even digging down...



...the bomber's radius doesn't quite reach.

I tried a whole lot of stuff at this point. Fruitlessly. For almost an hour. Finally though, I got an idea. I'm surprised I hadn't thought of it sooner, because it's actually one of my favourite tricks!

I can set up a builder bridge between the middle and right barriers, then mine down the bridge, like so:



This allows me destroy two barriers with one miner! Perfect. However... as you can see in the screenshot, I use a bomber to set this up. That means all I have left over is 1 digger and 1 bomber, which is not enough to get the crowd past the first barrier on the left.

And so... I called it a day.

---

So, about a week later I return to the puzzle and realize that I was actually 90% of the way there. If I could just save that bomber, I'd be able to free the crowd and the whole solution would work out. Well, it turns out you can:



Yep, I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner, but you can just use another build to boost the height of the bridge. No climb+bomb nessecary. The miner still comes out too low with this set up, so I have to interrupt the miner with another builder at the right time to create a step. It works, though!

So putting it all together. I assign two athletes then dig a pit to store the crowd in:



I build the bridges I need to build. When the athletes walk back, I bomb them both to free the crowd:



Then I mine down the bridge and perform an animation cancel:



Finally, success! Two extra builders and 28/30 when I only needed 26/30, though? Makes me think I didn't get the intended solution. Either way, that was the hardest puzzle so far for me.

Apparently this was one of the first puzzles ever created that used the mining-down-a-bridge trick. If so, I can imagine this blowing people away when it was first released. It's a wonderful trick. This is a good showcase of that trick too.

That said, I don't like some of the more misleading aspects of the level's design. The pipes on top of the central barrier ended up not indicating anything. Likewise, the pit on the left is completely skipped over. Figuring out the trick is tough enough without being led down the garden path.

Addendum

In the original game, you were forced to use the digger as I had done in my solution. However in NeoLemmix, bombers are instant, which means you can explode two of them right away to free the crowd:



If you then proceed with the rest of the solution:



You end up with an even more impressive saving of 1 climber, 1 floater, 2 builders and 1 digger.

Also it turns out I did obtain the intended solution, more or less. The two extra builders can be used to boost the miner tunnel higher and remove the need for the animation cancel.

Review

Pros: A pioneer of a very cool trick. Challenging, satisfying.
Cons: Terrain is misleading in a way that's not fun. Lining up the miner is really fiddly. Lots of waiting for climbers.
Look: Pretty good. The sculptures either side don't really do it for me, but otherwise no complaints.
Score: 6/10

Solution Replay